Ashford Station Bistro
Ashford Station Bistro
West Valley Restaurant kicks off new season, new opportunity
Exactly one year to the day after the Station Bistro opened its doors, the thriving West Valley restaurant is ready to kick off the summer season! On Wednesday, May 26th the Station will re-open after its three-week spring break to share a fresh menu, new live music and events, and very soon, a new chef!
Beginning next week, the Station will be open from 4:00-10:00pm Wednesday through Sunday, and owner Emily Tingue is excited to welcome guests for a fun summer. “We’ve expanded and done outdoor seating in the front and the back, and we also have a big campfire pit out back with custom cornhole boards,” she said. “We have some fun tournaments that we’re looking forward to!”
This is just the tip of the iceberg for the Station’s summer line-up. Event nights kick off during the first week of June, beginning with cruise-ins on Wednesday nights featuring classic cars, 50/50 raffles, live music and more. On Thursdays, the Station features motorcycle night with live music through September.
No matter what day of the week it is, the Station features a delicious base menu full of farm-to-table offerings that are grown nearby at Tingue’s Lucky Day Homestead and other local farms. “We bought into different shares with our local farmers,” Tingue explained. “Each week, we’re delivered fresh produce, good veggies, herbs and edible flowers, so our master chefs will be adding onto the menu to feature these.”
The regular menu has a great variety of appetizers, pizzas and sandwiches from which to choose. Tingue added, “Each week, the Station’s chefs will be putting together five or six farm-fresh features with locally-raised meats and poultry, and they’ll choose what they’re going to do with ingredients that are fresh and local. The selection will change every week!”
While new menu picks, alone, are plenty to keep customers returning, the Station’s musical lineup is another changing feature that many are already anticipating. “We’re having our big bands on Saturdays,” said Tingue, “and we’ll be featuring them on our Facebook page, but also have a printed out schedule available at the restaurant for people to take home and put on their refrigerator. Our bands usually get started around 5:00pm and play until 9:00 pr 10:00pm.”
Next Saturday, May 29th, Tingue is kicking off Memorial Day weekend with Band of Brothers. The event will also feature a classic car cruise-in with prizes awarded for best in each decade from pre-1950 to 1970s, best custom and more!
Saturdays may also feature some of the local farms that provide the Station with fresh produce for their menu. “On Saturday nights, we might bring in some tents like a farmer’s market to showcase our local farms, tell people where they’re from, and share what we might be featuring on the menu that week,” Tingue explained. “This will also allow our customers to pick up some produce.” (To keep up with the latest news, follow @ashfordstationbistro on Facebook.)
Speaking of the Station’s upcoming summer menu, Tingue is pleased to welcome new Chef Valentina Garcia-Montano to the restaurant beginning in June. Garcia-Montano was born in Houston, Texas but raised in Argentina where she lived until the age of 21 when she moved back to the U.S. to start her culinary career. After giving birth to her daughter, Martina, Garcia-Montano attended culinary school at ECC and worked at Tempo Restaurant in Buffalo for 17 years. Last fall, she became executive chef of Ristorante Lombardo, also in Buffalo, and has perfected her own sauce, Che Garcia Chimichurri, which is available at che-garcia.com.
Speaking of her new position at the Bistro, Garcia-Montano said she looks forward “to enhancing the local ingredients and products, as well as the quality of the food so the community can truly shine through our dishes.” Tingue is thrilled to welcome her to the restaurant, and Garcia-Montano is enthusiastic about the opportunity, too, saying she’s excited to “utilize the 20 years of fine-dining experience to bring the highest quality farm-to-table experience to our locals and tourists, with Emily’s roots and a little rustic elegance and my culinary experience.”
While there are many new things to look forward to at the Bistro, those who have fallen in love with Tingue’s mouth-watering assortment of pies will still be able to get their fix. “As always, we have farm-fresh pies, whole or by the slice, at the Station four days a week,” said Tingue. Her nearby Lucky Day Homestead at 5111 Roszyk Hill Road in Machias, where her pie stand first opened, is a beautiful place for people to stay in the country. The cozy cabin is listed on Airbnb year ‘round and is only a couple miles from the Station. Tingue explained, “A lot of our herbs and produce are grown there. Our barn is in transition but it’s going to be ready in 2022, possibly this fall, for garden classes, events, barn dances, and more. People could come up, buy a ticket, enjoy some bands, and have a nice meal provided by our chefs. The Homestead is also on the railroad tracks, so it has the same feel as the Station.”
If the Station sounds like an incredible business, that’s because it is! In fact, in just one year, the restaurant has already grown to become more than a one-person job, and Tingue is looking for an interested buyer for both the building and the business. “It’s an amazing three-story building that used to be a hardware store that was built in the 1920s,” she said. “It’s a really cool space that could be rented three or four times over. In the future, I could see there being a mercantile, a greenhouse, another bar … there’s a lot of potential!” Those who are interested can reach Tingue at 716-353-0193 or realtor Caitlin Croft at 716-440-7933.